The supermarket baby food aisle in the United States is packed with non-nutritious foods containing far too much sugar and salt and misleading marketing claims, a new study found.
Sixty percent of 651 foods that are marketed for children ages six months to 36 months on 10 supermarkets鈥� shelves in the U.S. failed to meet recommended World Health Organization nutritional guidelines for infant and toddler foods, according to the study, which was published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal Nutrients.
Almost none of the foods met all of the WHO standards for advertising, which focus on clear labeling of ingredients and accurate health claims.
Of all the products in the study, 70 per cent did not meet WHO鈥檚 guidance on protein content, and 25 per cent failed to meet calorie recommendations, the researchers found. One in five baby or toddler foods contained salt levels above the organization鈥檚 suggested limits.
One-quarter of products contained added or hidden sweeteners, with 44 per cent of the baby and toddler foods exceeding WHO鈥檚 recommendations for total sugars, said senior study author Dr. Elizabeth Dunford, an adjunct assistant professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
鈥淩esearch shows 50 per cent of the sugar consumed from infant foods comes from pouches, and we found those were some of the worst offenders,鈥� said Dunford, who is also a research fellow at the George Institute for Global Health in Sydney, which created FoodSwitch, an app that contains nutritional information on thousands of products worldwide.
Sales of baby food pouches rose 900 per cent in the U.S. in the past 13 years, the study found, making pouches one of the fastest-growing market segments.
Added sweeteners in baby food pouches
The increasing demand is understandable, as the ease and convenience of pouches can make them irresistible to overworked, stressed parents and caregivers, said Dr. Mark Corkins, St. Jude Endowed Chair for Excellence in Pediatric Gastroenterology at Le Bonheur Children鈥檚 Hospital at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis. He was not involved in the new study.
鈥淭hese pouches are very worrisome,鈥� said Corkins, who is also chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Nutrition.
鈥淐hildren have to learn to chew, so they should be eating regular fruits, not pureed, sweetened things in a pouch,鈥� he said. 鈥淥ften, these blends are not natural and much sweeter than a real fruit, so the child鈥檚 being taught to only like supersweet things.鈥�
Then there is the issue of texture, which must be learned at a critical age, Corkins added.
鈥淲e tell parents to gradually increase the texture of the foods during the introduction to real foods between six months and a year,鈥� Corkins said. 鈥淚f you don鈥檛 expose kids to a variety of textures with more chewing during that critical window, they can develop a texture aversion and will refuse anything but smooth, pureed types of foods.鈥�
CNN reached out to several industry associations who represent various baby food manufacturers but did not receive responses before publication.
Lack of guidelines for infant and toddler foods
The study looked at over 650 products gathered in 2023 from the baby food aisle in 10 major U.S. supermarkets. It did not analyze dairy or other refrigerated foods marketed for children.
The names and brands of the foods were not disclosed in the study.
The researchers applied nutrition and promotional recommendations for commercially produced infant and toddler foods made in 2022 by the WHO Regional Office for Europe. The WHO recommendations are an attempt to address the global disarray in nutritional guidance on foods for babies and toddlers, which happens to be worse in the United States than other Western countries, experts say.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has implemented regulations on infant formulas and levels of arsenic in baby food, and it makes recommendations on food safety and handling.
鈥淎re there regulations in different countries specific to infant and toddler foods? The short answer is no, but in Europe, the U.K., New Zealand and Australia, where I鈥檓 from, there are broader regulations about how ingredients can be listed on the package that also impact foods fed to children,鈥� Dunford said.
For example, if a savory food was made of 10 per cent spinach, eight per cent beef and two per cent potato, leaving the bulk of the product apples or pears 鈥� which are often used as sweeteners in baby foods 鈥� the name of the product in those countries would be 鈥淧ear, spinach, beef and potato pie,鈥� she said.
Manufacturers in those countries are also requited to clearly identify percentages on the label, such as 鈥渟pinach (10 per cent) beef (eight per cent) and potato (two per cent), leaving it obvious how much pear or apple is included,鈥� Dunford said. 鈥淚n the U.S., however, there are no such regulations, so it鈥檚 more difficult to understand what鈥檚 in the products you鈥檙e buying.鈥�
Such hidden sweeteners may be a key reason only 31% of nonfruit pouches met WHO total sugar recommendations, Dunford said.
Misleading advertising
Nearly all 鈥� 99.4 per cent 鈥� of the 651 products in the study contained at least one marketing claim that was prohibited by the WHO recommendations. Products displayed four or five such claims, on average; some had as many as 13, the study found.
Common claims included 鈥渘on-genetically modified,鈥� or GM (70 per cent); 鈥渙rganic鈥� (59 per cent): 鈥渘o BPA (bisphenol A)鈥� (37 per cent): and 鈥渘o artificial colors or flavors鈥� (25 per cent) 鈥� the WHO frowns on such marketing claims because they may lead consumers to feel that the product is more nutritious than one next to it on the shelf, which may or may not be true, Dunford said.
鈥淭he reason we call it the Wild West when we talk about the baby food aisle is that manufacturers get to pick and choose which elements of their product they want to highlight,鈥� Dunford said. 鈥淭hey certainly don鈥檛 highlight the bad stuff, right? If their product is high in sugar, they鈥檙e just going to say, 鈥榥o added colors or flavors鈥� on the label.鈥�
Countries like Australia, she added, require ingredients to reach a minimum nutrient profile: If a food or beverage doesn鈥檛 meet a baseline nutritional standard, the manufacturer is not eligible to make any specific health claim about that ingredient.
鈥淚f that product doesn鈥檛 meet the minimum nutritional profile for calcium, for example, they cannot put added calcium on their label,鈥� Dunford said.
Some 62 per cent of the products in the study made general health and nutrition claims, the researchers found, while 58 per cent included claims about specific ingredients.
鈥淪nack and finger foods often referred to fruit or vegetables in the product name, despite primarily being made of flour or other starches,鈥� said study coauthor Dr. Daisy Coyle, a research fellow and dietitian at the George Institute for Global Health.
鈥淭he lack of regulation in this area leaves the door wide open for the food industry to deceive busy parents,鈥� Coyle said in a statement.
Such claims create a 鈥渉ealth halo鈥� around these baby food products, experts say.
鈥淥ne of the biggest concerns about baby and toddler foods are the often fictitious health claims on the front of products,鈥� Corkins said. 鈥淪ome of them are blatant, some are implied, and they may be misleading parents and guardians.
鈥淎 concerned, well-meaning parent will read claims like wholesome and nutritious and will not only buy those products but spend more money on them because of the claims,鈥� he said.
